I do find Fever's post come across as this the way you should be training your dog.e.g There is a difference between saying I would not let my dogs off the lead if they were pinging away when the lead is undone

and

' I think, if a dog pings off when the lead clip is undone, that dog probably isn't ready to go off lead, or it's the wrong time to remove the lead'

The first statement is your personal choice. the second is a criticism of anybody who allows it.

It may not be what is intended but a reader can only interpret what they see, without intonation or expression.

Practise the recall when you are on a 'safe' distance, with 'safe' is that you know he will not run off after the other dog.

If he does, you are too close.Long line may help, I have tried that in the past, not keen on it, only because I usually fall over it, or the dog runs around in circles, and ties me up!

Have a variety of treats, and for an excellent recall he gets the jackpot, i.e. lots of training not in one go, but you feeding one by one, (better than shoving everything in at one go )

What also may work, change your recall cue. HE is now starting to ignore it, so he is teaching himself, he can ignore that one. So change to something else. I used to whistle Luna, she started ignoring it, so I started in thehouse/garden with four quick whistles after each other, and then the ball as reward( ball fanatic that one!) She now has a lovely recall, even from squirrels, although I do need to repeat the recall a couple of times when she is really close to a squirrel and she loses it, far too excited for her own good

Keep working at it, I am sure he will get over the 'Kevin Stage' soon, and the sensible head will appear ( as sensible as they can get lol )

To begin with only use it when you know the dog will respond, so that becomes the habit and he doesn't practice ignoring it. Hence using it to call him for is dinner. Start when he is with you but before you out the dish down. Then use it to call him from another room- even of you have to shut him out , whistle and then let him in.

I also taught mine to check with me when they saw a dog but wait until I said it was okay to go and see them.

If you always release him when he stops , as an intelligent dog, he will start to anticipate the release and go himself.

Use a long line and call him back to you and have him sit before you let him go visit. That way you control when he goes. Even have him walk close for a couple of steps first, anything to break the concentration on the other dog.

The way to handle a long line is to have knots at several strategic places to allow you to grip it. When the lead goes slack feed it, hand over hand, to the side of you or through your legs.

Thanks guys, he is improving. I'm with Louwra on the long line. I'm far too talented at falling over to cope with one of those

I have been practising the distraction thing with a click and a treat and Bertie extrapolated from that that click means come here. He's starting to get really good at spotting another dog and coming straight to me to have his lead on and have a treat. Good boy. I also spent a few weeks keeping him away from his more boisterous friends and restricting him to polite helloes with calmer dogs. He seems to be learning his manners as now he'll do a gentle paw swipe to ask the question 'wanna play?' but if he gets no playful response, he walks along nicely instead.

I'm sure there will be more Kevin moments but for now, we seem to have made a breakthrough. Many thanks for your assistance.

I use a flexi in preference to a long line. I just do not get on with them and I've never had a problem with teaching recall on flexi despite the arguments about constant tension etc. The key is getting the dog into the unconscious habit of recalling so it shouldn't matter if they know they're on lead - once you're letting them off, it's strong enough that they're responding anyway (and you're picking appropriate times to practice until it's reliably trained).